Police train on high-tech virtual gun range | Video

Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel

LAKE MARY – This is what Altamonte Springs police Lt. Darin Farber faced Wednesday: Two employees were trapped in a warehouse by a pair of gunmen. The hostages dashed around a corner and begged Farber for help.

Then one gunman aimed at Farber, and a few seconds later, a second gunman emerged. Farber opened fire and both armed men fell to the floor.

He stood on a stage in a darkened room, surrounded by projector screens. In his hand was a modified Glock 9 mm that fired laser beams instead of bullets.

Behind him stood Robert Dean, a Gander Mountain firearms instructor, who manned a computer console that controlled what Farber would see and hear.

Farber would face a variety of scenarios: an armed, suicidal man, taunting him to open fire; a driver angry about being pulled over; a hallway with lots of blind angles that hid a gunman or an innocent officer worker .

Farber tried to reason with the distraught man, tried to calm the angry driver, tried to stay alive in that blind hallway without killing anyone who was unarmed.

The point, said Police Chief Mike McCoy, is to sharpen an officer's judgment – not just his ability to hit a target.

Chris Juelich, who heads the chain's firearms academies across the country, described the virtual simulator as a "multimillion-dollar construction project and investment" in Lake Mary. The chain has five others in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas and Kansas.

Civilians can use the virtual range at the Lake Mary Gander Mountain as well, at a cost of $25 for a 30-minute session. But the virtual scenarios are different. The law enforcement scenarios are not available to the public, said Officer Robert Pelton.